09 October 2015

Marriage, before and after Christ

Particularly timely considering the intervention of Cardinal Lacunza Maestrojuan at the Synod. From the Roman Catechism:

Marriage before Christ

It Was Not A Sacrament

How much the Sacrament of Matrimony is superior to the
marriages made both previous to and under the (Mosaic) Law may be judged from the
fact that though the Gentiles themselves were convinced there was something
divine in marriage, and for that reason regarded promiscuous intercourse as
contrary to the law of nature, while they also considered fornication, adultery
and other kinds of impurity to be punishable offences; yet their marriages
never had any sacramental value.

Among the Jews the laws of marriage were observed far more
religiously, and it cannot be doubted that their unions were endowed with more
holiness. As they had received from God the promise that in the seed of Abraham
all nations should be blessed, it was justly considered by them to be a
very pious duty to bring forth children, and thus contribute to the propagation
of the chosen people from whom Christ the Lord and Saviour was to derive His
birth in His human nature. Still their unions also fell short of the real
nature of a Sacrament.Before Christ Marriage Had Fallen From Its Primitive Unity
And Indissolubility

It should be added that if we consider the law of nature
after the fall and the Law of Moses we shall easily see that­ marriage had
fallen from its original honour and purity. Thus under the law of nature we
read of many of the ancient Patriarchs that they had several wives at the same
time; while under the Law of Moses it was permissible, should cause exist, to
repudiate one's wife by giving her a bill of divorce. Both these (concessions)
have been suppressed by the law of the Gospel, and marriage has been restored
to its original state.

Christ Restored to Marriage its Primitive Qualities

Unity Of Marriage

Though some of the ancient Patriarchs are not to be blamed
for having married several wives, since they did not act thus without divine
dispensation, yet Christ our Lord has clearly shown that polygamy is not in
keeping with the nature of Matrimony. These are His words: For this cause shall
a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall
be two in one flesh; and He adds: wherefore they are no more two but one flesh.
In these words He makes it clear that God instituted marriage to be the union
of two, and only two persons. The same truth He has taught very distinctly in
another passage, wherein He says: Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry
another, committeth adultery against her; and if the wife shall put away her
husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. For if it were
lawful for a man to have several wives, there is no reason why he who takes to
himself a second wife, along with the wife he already has, should be regarded
as more guilty of adultery than if he had dismissed his first wife and taken a
second.

Hence it is that when an infidel who, following the customs
of his country has married several wives, happens to be converted to the true
religion, the Church orders him to dismiss all but the first, and regard her
alone as his true and lawful wife.

A Day That Will Live in Glory

Pray for the Four Cardinals: Burke, Caffarra, Meiser and Brandmuller

“You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day."